CORDILLERA Department of Agriculture (DA) director Faustino Maslan said that rice importation is expected to end by 2005.

DA Secretary Luis Lorenzo vowed to strengthen rice production through the adoption of hybrid and inbreed rice varieties among rice producers in the country, he added, saying that the thrust of the Arroyo administration is to urge rice producers to adopt the hybrid rice variety in order to meet the rice supply demand in the country.

Maslan also claimed that there is a need to balance rice production efforts through the utilization of these varieties in rice production. He said that hybrid and inbreeds varieties produce higher yield even without increasing plantation areas.

With the adoption of the high yielding rice varieties, he said that the region is capable of producing 400 million sacks of rice annually. But for this year, the DA set a rice production target of 14.2 metric tons.

DA-CAR records showed that of the total 1.8 million hectares land area of the region, 533,000 hectares classified as agricultural area but only 363 hectares are utilized for agricultural purposes.
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